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HOCKEY; He Blames Messier for Ouster

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The war of hockey wills that endured for too long between Roger Neilson and Mark Messier ended yesterday in a curt dismissal. The Ranger coach was demoted. The superstar played on.

Neilson was transferred to scouting duties and replaced by his 48-year-old disciple, Ron Smith, coach of the Binghamton farm club. Before exiting, Neilson finally broke his diplomatic silence to blame Messier for the troubles that ended an ultimately disappointing reign.

"This year, he just didn't lead us," Neilson said of Messier. "Last year, Mark was on top of all the little things. He was leading meetings and noticing things. This year, he didn't get it done."

From the quiet Neilson, such a proclamation amounted to a scream in the night. It came after months of tactful feuding, and after a desperate road trip that ended on Saturday with three defeats.

The Rangers' dismal record of late was the direct cause for Neilson's demise, and the reason that Neil Smith, general manager of the Rangers, was willing to swallow most of a $1 million, three-year contract that Neilson signed on Nov. 9. Smith would not admit it, but the coach's problems with Messier were, just as certainly, the catalyst for yesterday's action. In separate interviews yesterday, Neilson and Messier sounded relieved to be rid of each other.

Neilson, who is 58 years old and was in his fourth season as coach of the Rangers, complained that he had never before experienced such problems in getting his players to accept defensive responsibilities, and that he had hoped that Messier's "competitive spirit" would eventually have forced him to improve his attitude.

Messier countered that Neilson had failed to adjust his strategies after repeated beatings from Patrick Division rivals.

"I don't want to coach the team," Messier said. "But sometimes, you should be doing something different. We were predictable, and our record showed that."

Matters had disintegrated so far, Neilson revealed yesterday, that he held a secret meeting on Friday night in Pittsburgh, asking three players to take over the leadership role from Messier. In addition to Mike Gartner, one of those players was Messier's closest friend on the team, Adam Graves, and the third was his roommate, Kevin Lowe. Messier was bound to find out about the session, and he did.

"Our relationship had deteriorated, and holding meetings behind my back, that wasn't the right thing to do," said Messier, who was told about the meeting by Lowe. "I'm captain until someone takes it away from me."

Messier was absolutely livid about the notion that he might have subverted Neilson purposefully with some sloppy play of late. Messier said his recent mistakes, which had led to a minus-12 ice rating on the season, were caused by torn muscles in his ribs, which have been bothering him for the past two months.

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Neilson, who would like to continue coaching elsewhere, was told of his demotion by Neil Smith yesterday morning, in Neilson's office at the team's practice site at Rye, N.Y. Neilson had hoped to hang on until the Rangers' homestand, and then until Brian Leetch returned from his injured neck and shoulder in about two weeks.

But after hearing about the blowout defeat in Buffalo and the loss in Pittsburgh, Smith said he made the decision to fire Neilson Sunday on his flight back from Sweden, where he was scouting the World Junior Championships.

"We had tried so many things," the general manager said. "We had tried call-ups from Binghamton, and sitting down players, and trades. Nothing seemed to work. The last few weeks, everything spiraled so fast."

In the end, he turned to Ron Smith, who began a long-term relationship with Neilson in 1970 working at developmental hockey camps in Ottawa. Meanwhile, Colin Campbell, Neilson's direct assistant with the Rangers, was sent to Binghamton to replace Ron Smith. Campbell was presumably too close to the deteriorating situation on the Rangers to be considered as a successor to Neilson.

Ron Smith, like Neilson, is a technically demanding coach with an obsessive eye for videotape. He has a shorter temper than Neilson, which might have gotten him the job. But he didn't expect to get this chance.

"Coaching in the N.H.L. was a real strong goal for me in the 70's and 80's, but as time went on I became a fatalist and I just started to enjoy the job I had," he said. "It's ironic that when I turned off the open flame of desire, something happens."

Neil Smith said he expected his new coach's more aggressive posture to inspire the team. "Ron is a much more fiery individual than Roger, and that will become evident," the general manager said. "He has a much more aggressive style of managing people."

Neil Smith said he would reevaluate his coaching situation at some future time. If his new coach failed to turn things around, Smith said he might look into the availability of Mike Keenan, the high-powered former coach of the Chicago Blackhawks.

At this juncture, even Neil Smith's job security might not be what it was. Neilson's contract includes a clause that will lower his salary in its final season, 1994-95, but the Rangers will be paying out close to $600,000 for Neilson's scouting duties over the remainder of the pact.

SLAP SHOTS

Shortly after ROGER NEILSON was dismissed as coach, the National Hockey League announced that he and former Ranger TIE DOMI , now with Winnipeg, had been suspended for two days and fined $500 as a result of a premeditated fight between Domi and Detroit's BOB PROBERT on Dec. 2.

Both suspensions, but not the fines, will be rescinded if there is no involvement in any further incident of premeditated fighting the rest of this season and playoffs or public criticism of the National Hockey League's policy.

A version of this article appears in print on January 5, 1993, on Page B00007 of the National edition with the headline: HOCKEY; He Blames Messier for Ouster. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe